The Panak family has been firmly established in the German fruit trade for many years. Father Petr was at the helm of his own fruit agency for many years and served the German wholesale trade by air and sea freight with exotic papayas, mangoes, avocados and table grapes. Son Peter went through all stages of fruit wholesale during his training, but finally decided to go into retail at the end of last year. With a great deal of passion and dedication, he tries to sell regional products and high-quality fruit exotics to both men and women in the modern shop at Ingolstadt’s main railway station.
The diverse assortment of the Panak company.
In December 2019, the specialist retailer opened its doors in the heart of Ingolstadt. Barely three months later, the Corona pandemic broke out in Bavaria. “We were fortunately allowed to continue, but the second shop, which is run by my mother, was closed for a short time. At the new location, we have got a good grip on the protective measures and we have partially switched to delivery. This means that our customers were able to order the goods from Whatsapp and have them delivered to their front door. All in all, this worked excellently,” says Panak.
Peter Panak has been running a retail business at Ingolstadt Central Station since December 2019. “I am happy to seek the expertise of my colleagues for an exchange in the areas of retail, business development, distribution and start-up.”
Great demand for regional vegetable products
The independent entrepreneur has also noticed increased sales in the specialist retail trade. “We did not experience real hoarding like in the supermarkets, but we too were able to achieve a high turnover. Regional leafy vegetables from nearby Knoblauchsland – such as lettuce, rocket and romana – were particularly popular for a while.” On the procurement side, the situation was particularly challenging for fruit exotics: “Due to the lack of airfreight capacity, prices for Peruvian and Brazilian exotics have risen considerably. In the meantime, we are seeing normal prices again, although the purchasing power is declining slightly, especially for the unusual, high-priced products.”
Supply bottlenecks hardly occurred in the exotics sector. Only the “smaller” tropical fruits such as durian had one or two supply gaps.
The young entrepreneur has set himself the goal of offering his customers a balanced selection of domestic and imported fruit and vegetable products. “Regional products from the nearby growing areas as well as high quality fruit form our core competence. It is particularly important to me to explain the background to the product and to cover niches where possible. This is where we can stand out from the food retail trade,” Panak claims.
Peter Panak (centre) visiting a grape producer in Peru.
Potential sales market for organic products
While the market is gradually stabilizing, the company is once again looking ahead with confidence. “In terms of product range, we have stocked up quite well. Many business people who arrive here buy ready-to-eat To Go fruit in pre-packed bags from us. The next possible step would be to build up an organic assortment: We see an interesting market for organic products in Ingolstadt. In the long term, we would also like to include smoothies in our range.”
Anyone who visits Mr Panak in the shop and says “Freshplaza” will receive a ‘Business To Go Bag’ as a small thank you.
For more information:
Fa. Peter Panak
Tel: +49 (0) 841 99367600
Mobile: +49 (0) 176 80061099
E-Mail: [email protected]
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/peter-panak
